


Saturdays at Puddifoot's

by static_abyss



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-15
Updated: 2017-08-15
Packaged: 2018-12-15 14:51:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11808201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/static_abyss/pseuds/static_abyss
Summary: Éponine knows there is a scheme she doesn't quite understand that starts and ends with afternoon tea with Cosette on Saturdays.





	Saturdays at Puddifoot's

**Author's Note:**

  * For [alopey](https://archiveofourown.org/users/alopey/gifts).



> For alopey. Happy Summer Hols o/

Saturdays go like this.

Éponine Thénardier wakes up in the morning from where she's fallen asleep on her desk, various scrolls scattered all over the place, quills upside down in inkwells, and a half-graded essay attached to her cheek. If it's been a good week, Éponine spends Saturday morning grading the Ravenclaws' essays. If it's a bad week, she dumps out her cold coffee into her sink and hopes she doesn't run into any Gryffindors in the hallway. Not that it's only the Gryffindors who scribble towards the end of their run-on sentences, as though Éponine will be fooled if she can't read what they write. But Éponine always grades the Gryffindors' essays first. So it's always the Gryffindors who are on thin ice. 

This week is a good week.

-

Cosette Fauchelevent wears brightly colored robes underneath her standard black cloak. Her favorite is a light blue pair of robes that Éponine says bring out the color of Cosette's eyes. And if Éponine were to ask, Cosette would tell her that the blue robes are her favorite because every time she wears them, she can see the widening of Éponine's eyes and the lingering gaze. For a second, Cosette can pretend it's more than just admiration and a little jealousy. 

"You're so beautiful," Éponine had said once. "It's a little disgusting."

Éponine had meant it as a joke, but Cosette knows she didn't mistake the sharpness in Éponine's voice. 

They are two different people even if they come from the same house, and though Cosette has loved Éponine ever since the moment in the Great Hall when the Headmistress introduced her as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Cosette knows better than to push. She had once, back when Éponine wouldn't ever say no to a drink after classes, when they were both five years younger and drunk on whiskey and new opportunities. 

Cosette knew what Éponine's lips felt like against her own, how soft Éponine's sigh was against Cosette's mouth. She memorized the shapes of Éponine's hands, her eyes, and the frightened expression that came after. They had kissed once, and Cosette had never forgotten it or the silence that came after. 

Éponine hadn't spoken to her for weeks. Until one day, Cosette had woken up and decided that she had had enough. She'd had let her Charms class out early and was waiting outside when Éponine's own class ended. The fifth years had lingered and Éponine had had no choice but to incite Cosette into her classroom.

Cosette should have known better than to push so hard. She understands that now. But back then, when she could still remember the warmth of Éponine's mouth, all Cosette had wanted was to have Éponine in her life, in anyway she could. Cosette would do anything to be able to kiss Éponine one more time. 

Which is how afternoon tea at Madam Puddifoot's came to be. 

-

Éponine knows there is a scheme she doesn't quite understand that starts and ends with afternoon tea with Cosette on Saturdays. Because Éponine doesn't know what it is Cosette is trying to do, she always makes sure to show up at a different time every Saturday. This week, however, has been a good week, and good weeks mean that Éponine hadn't thought of her mother or father once, which in turn means that she's early for afternoon tea. 

She's brought the Ravenclaw essays to grade and is even looking forward to rereading the same curses and countercurses for the fiftieth time in a row. She settles into the usual booth in the back right, up against the wall, with a clear view to the exit. Éponine has her favorite quill, her wand tucked safely into her jeans pocket, and one of the pink menus open in front of her. She pretends to look it over before ordering her usual large coffee. 

"Always a surprise with you isn't it, Professor?" the waitress says. 

"You know the Thénardiers," Éponine says lightly. "We're known for being fickle."

The teasing is new, but the waitress just smiles gently, as though she knows what this is costing Éponine. 

"Don't let Cosette catch you saying that. She got into a proper fight with a wizard who was talking too loud about your family, last week."

Éponine tries not to flinch. "What were they saying?" she asks.

The waitress waves her hand. "You know," she says. "Just the same Death Eater bullshit, like Voldemort hasn't been dead for ages. Like our Cosette won't her anyone who even looks at you wrong."

"Yes, I will," Cosette says, as she walks up to the booth. "Who's looking at Éponine?"

It's easy to laugh, easier still to let Cosette slide into the booth and up against Éponine's side. They use the weather, a little too cold for fall and too warm for winter, as an excuse to link hands. Cosette runs hot. Éponine runs cold.

"I heard you beat up a stranger for me," Éponine says. "Defended my honour and everything."

"It's all part of the plan," Cosette says, letting go of Éponine's hand just long enough to pull off her cloak. 

Cosette is wearing light pink robes that Éponine gave her last Christmas. Éponine had seen them on her trip to Diagon Alley to pick up owl pellets for Gavroche's tawny owl. Something about the shade had made Éponine want to know what the robes would look like against Cosette's skin. She had imagined it, pale pink against Cosette's white throat, dreamed it so often that when she finally gave them to Cosette, her entire body was shaking.

Éponine feels it now, the quickening of her breath and the loud beating of her heart. Cosette in colors that Éponine picked out for her, Cosette defending her, it all comes together in a wave of longing so strong Éponine has to close her eyes for a moment. 

She'd wanted Cosette from the moment the two of them looked at each other in the Great Hall on their first day as Professors. They'd missed each other during their school years. Éponine had been too busy carrying a name and a reputation she had inherited from her parents, while Cosette mourned the loss of her own. They'd been too busy to ever notice each other in their common room, and once Azelma and Gavroche started school, Éponine had spent the rest of her time at Hogwarts making sure that everyone understood that to get to her siblings, the world would have to go through her.

They're older now and Éponine remember the way Cosette's hips had fit into her palms, how her hipbones had dug into Éponine's thumb. But even those memories belong to a time when Éponine was just starting, when she had still been so afraid of losing everything good that had ever come into her life. 

She looks at Cosette now, at the light brown curls that tumble down Cosette's back, and the blue eyes, the soft smile, the pink robes. 

Éponine's exhale is shaky. "What plan?" she asks.

Cosette, beautiful infuriating Cosette just smiles. "You'll see," she says.

-

The five year plan goes like this.

Year one: earn Éponine's trust. 

Year two: get Éponine to see someone about the thing with her parents.

Year three: take Éponine Christmas shopping and introduce the idea of Saturday tea.

Year four: get invited to Éponine's for Christmas.

Year five: let Éponine know about the five year plan, and maybe, finally, get to kiss her again.

To this day, there has never been a thing in Cosette's life that hasn't gone to plan. 

-

They're different people, Éponine has always known this.

Cosette has a loving father who took her in when her parents passed away in the war. Cosette wears bright colors and laughs like happiness is just that easy to obtain, as though everything she feels is a gift that she can't quite believe is here. Cosette is beautiful and intelligent and the way she looks at Éponine shakes Éponine to her very core. Cosette terrifying.

Cosette also kissed Éponine first.

Éponine is nothing like Cosette because Éponine has an aunt who waited only until Éponine was of age to kick the three of them, Éponine, Gavroche, and Azelma, out of their parents home. Éponine still struggles with what it means to be happy, with whether she's done enough, whether she is enough. She can't ever let go of her parents even though she wants to, because she carries their name and their sins. She's scared of losing everything, so much so that on the day Cosette kissed her, Éponine ran away.

-

Cosette Fauchlevent is not the type of person to give up when she wants something or someone. 

_Some might call that ambition,_ the Sorting Hat had told her.

"I'd call it drive," Cosette had answered. 

-

Éponine doesn't know why the second kiss catches her by surprise. She feels it build up all afternoon in the way Cosette looks at her. It weighs heavy in every step they take back to the castle, in the quick breaths Cosette is taking.

Somehow, she still isn't ready.

-

Cosette kisses Éponine right against the door to Éponine's room. It takes maybe thirty seconds for Éponine to react, but when she does, it's as though everything in Cosette's chest comes loose. She unravels in Éponine's hands, her body coming awake as she digs her fingers in Éponine's hair. 

They kiss against the door until their lips are numb, until Éponine is shaking so hard, Cosette is afraid she'll fall apart. 

Éponine pulls away, and for the first time, Cosette is afraid.

-

This is what the sorting hat told Éponine.

_I can see the Slytherin in you. Just like I saw it in your mother and father. Just like I'll see it in your brother and your sister._

"I know," Éponine had told it. "I know who I am and I know who my family is."

_Yes, you do know who you are. And you're bright, exceedingly so. You will survive whatever is put in front of you. Almost like a true Gryffindor._

"So Gryffindor then?" 

_No, for you and I both know that when it matters, you will be smart enough to get out of your own way._

Which is why, when Éponine pulls away from their second kiss, she looks Cosette right in the eyes, kicks open her room door and says, "you might as well come in."


End file.
